Oh, the piles.

 

Hardly an interesting post to start with after so many months, but man, have I struggled with laundry lately.

I've had the thought - more than once, that if someone would have shown me what the laundry piles looked like for 8 people, would I still have had 6 kids?

Really?

Rylee and Clay have started doing their own laundry. I'm sure they grew tired of waiting for their dear mother to do it. I have found solace in knowing that I am not alone - letting (clean) baskets of laundry hang around for a week or two . . . bless those honest women.

 

For now, I will just have to trust President Monson.

Helping Hands

I’m sure most of you remember the terrible flooding that happened here in Colorado in the beginning of September. Mostly northern, near Boulder. The Stake up there did as much as they could, but then enlisted the surrounding Stakes for help. Our Stake was responsible  for 20 volunteers on certain days to go up and man dumpsters; to make sure folks weren’t disposing hazardous waste, just regular damaged goods.

One Monday in September, we received the email that our help was needed that day. My first thought was to get up there, then I started to rationalize how difficult it would be to get up there, be there for a 4 hour shift, then come home. Kids needed to be picked up at different places, at different times, and I didn’t see how I could make it work. Thanks to a wonderful friend, she offered to do it all for me so at least one of us could go up.

I headed up to Boulder, got my yellow Helping Hands vest, got my assignment, and headed out to monitor 3 of about 36 dumpsters in the area with another gal from the Stake. We had one person dispose something. Meanwhile, between two dumpsters we walked a neighborhood checking out some pretty devastating areas. A simple, small creek that had run through it had become a raging river growing 10 times in size, reaching and running through dozens of homes and almost completely washing the banks near a bridge. One couple we talked to, the Andersons (bless their hearts) had been away during the evacuation. They came home to 6 feet and 8 inches of water in their basement. Their sweet cat that would scurry to the basement when she was afraid, didn’t make it out. They found her body a week later. This couple – in their 60s, was out salvaging their clothes trying to clean the mud of them. They lost half the space of their house and so many things that they stored in their basement. They recognized our yellow vests and expressed so much appreciation for what the folks in the yellow vests had done for them the entire week before. They had some LDS youth come – they called them the bucked brigade, forming in a line scooping the water out of their basement.

They invited this gal and I into their backyard to see everything they had pulled out of their basement. Their entire yard was filled with mud and water soaked possessions. It was quite the sight. They had a lot of work ahead of them. Not needing their flood insurance for over 31 years, they had canceled it just months before. It was heart breaking. One home we saw, their house was in the middle of the river – rushing right through their basement.

Although the water had receded a lot, around every tree – that had stayed upright, had debris and branches wrapped around them.  It seemed inappropriate to take pictures of actual homes.

 

Two weeks after I had opportunity to go up to Boulder, our dear Primary President organized a service project for our Primary kids. Ward members donated items, the kids gathered and sorted and loaded up a truck that the Primary President would take up to Boulder herself. The kids loved it. I loved seeing them in the same yellow vests. In just over an hour, the truck was loaded and ready to go.

I adore these Primary children. The Sunday before this project, they sang their hearts out in their Primary Program and did me proud. They touched hearts with their beautiful voices and shared the gospel and their testimonies through song. It was so touching. That same Sunday I was released as the Primary Chorister and called back into Relief Society. I loved my time with them each week. Wonderful, wonderful kids. Truly Helping (little) Hands.

This Baby Boy

I love this kid; my little companion each morning. I’m often corrected when I squeeze him and call him my baby boy. He’s certainly not a baby anymore moving onto bigger things each day. Like mastering the potty. He’s on day 2, with only one accident.  I’m thinking I should throw myself a party. I will be diaper free. FREE. For the first time in 12.5 years.

Bring on the parade!

Worth Noting

Well, it's about time we changed the scenery around here!
It's not fun to see the same post for 2 months, is it. ;)

 

Mother's Day 2013

There is something worth noting today.

Today was the first morning (except Sundays) that we weren't up at 5:30 working out.
We made it!
Ryan and I finished Insanity yesterday. Woot woot!
62 days straight of 5:30am workouts.
We did miss ONE morning - postponed really - and that's because it was the day of the Bolder Boulder!
Yeah, we're hard core. ;)

 

And, would you like to know what I ate for breakfast this morning?
Frosted Flakes.
What the?
I thought it would be a fun treat to get the kids yesterday at Costco.
Lame sauce. What as I thinking?
I'm excited to take our after pictures to (hopefully!) see the difference.
Those will not be shared, but we're feeling great - healthy and strong.
Totally worth it - especially when we agreed with our workout friends that we'd take a trip to celebrate.
YAY! 


Happy Friday!

True Friend

I can think of several instances where things have been put in my path exactly when I've needed them. What a tremendous, tremendous blessing. 

Just over a year ago, one evening as I was putting the littles to bed, I knelt by their bedside completely discouraged and in tears. I had never felt so badly about myself. It had been building for years. I was tired of not having my body cooperating with me since Olivia was born. My feelings, my self-image, seemed to be all over the place and I just felt awful. I wanted so badly to feel better about myself. It was a major internal struggle for me. I tried to not let it bother me, but it was more than just my vanity. I didn't like the way I felt about myself. I didn't feel like my care-free, fun, self. Something was weighing me down (literally!).

Within two weeks I was sitting in my friend's living room learning about Energy Profiling and Dressing Your Truth.  It certainly wasn't a light-bulb moment then and there, but I found I couldn't stop thinking about it after. I went over to another friend's house to re-read the Types three times - I had to figure it out. Another two weeks went by and I just couldn't get past it. I watched everything I could online and even tried to figure out the Style Guide/Colors myself. It wasn't enough. Finally, on Valentine's Day, Ryan encouraged me to buy the course. Perhaps he was tired of me hemming and hawing about it, or simply the discouragement he knew I felt about myself, but he told me to go ahead and do it. It was a chunk of change ($199) and I was sweating a bit as I bought it, but as soon as I did, I absorbed everything I could. I still do.

I was hesitant to post this again, but I've hooked some of you :) and I know there are some of you out there that have felt how I have. So here goes.

Dressing Your Truth is having their True Friend sale. You can check it out HERE. You can also learn your profile for free if you're not ready. DYT is all over the internet/youtube. I love learning how your type affects the way you get angry, the best tips to reduce and eliminate stress, best parenting and even your body shape tendencies, and skin! Everything. I love it. (Let me know if you'd like the links to those.)


So there you go.
Thanks for letting me share. again. :)

Wrestling and Basketball

January brought more wrestling for Clay just over at the high school .Clay’s desire to wrestle seemed to wane near the end. He didn’t want to go to practice much, but only preferred the meets. Nice try. He picked everything up pretty quickly and it was fun to watch him. Not so much for me at the beginning. I didn’t like seeing kids all twisted up and watching their eyes as they struggled – Clay included. Ryan was in heaven. I told him I wanted to video some of Clay’s matches; especially his first ones. Ryan said he would. First words out of my mouth, “are you sure you won’t be too loud ?” To which he responded, with a grin, “no I’m just going to watch.” Yeah right. 

Warming up at the last meet.

January thru March brought Young Women basketball for Rylee. She was invited to play as an 11 year old – turning 12. She wasn’t so sure about playing in the beginning, but once she decided to actually play, she blew us away. She’s fast and feisty. One of the games she caused 6 turnovers! She was never afraid to get right in there and swipe the ball away. She’s on her way to being quite the little point guard.

I was graced with another year coaching the YW.  Our team dynamics couldn’t have been more different this year than last. Our team was huge – enough for two full lines plus subs.  And, all of those girls were Beehives, but 3! Isn’t that awesome? (wink) We won a few games and some how still made it to the Stake Championship game. You wouldn’t believe how much these girls improved, it was an awesome season.

Rylee loves basketball, and certainly didn’t stop with YW basketball. On March 4th, her middle school held a tournament Hoops for Heart to raise money for the Heart Association. Rylee was quick to help form a team. Twenty-four teams entered.

 

Each team played a series of 4 minute games to see where they would start in the tournament. We were thrilled to see Rylee and her team go to the semi-finals and finish 4th over all. I was really impressed watching these 6-8th graders play. Most could show me up any day. 

About a week later, Rylee came home from school with a cool little trophy. She’s ready for next year.

 

(Love how I didn’t get any action shots of either Rylee or Clay? yeah, awesome. We do have video though;)

Contagious

 

Olivia, Henry and I ran to Target yesterday to grab a few things.

They were sitting in one of those huge carts and I walked away from the cart for a moment.

I came back to these two laugh hysterically at each other.

Really laughing. 

They couldn't stop.

The next few moments made my day.

Every person we passed started smiling and some even started to laugh.

It was contagious.

As we turned the corner to go to the check-out, the man paying even took a few steps back to see who was laughing and smiled.

Henry and Olivia stopped laughing and quickly became distracted when I agreed they could pick out a treat.

The lady at the register told me to

"make them laugh again. I love to hear kids laugh."

Driving away, these two busted up again. :)

 

Being Brave

Ryan and I have been invited to go on the Pioneer Trek this year.
We're going to be a Ma and Pa to 8-10 youth.
When the 2nd counselor of the Stake Presidency extended the invitation, he graciously warned us that there would be two 14 mile hikes back to back.
Oy.

Not long before that, my friend mentioned she'd like to run the Bolder Boulder 10k again this year.
Thinking that would be a great way to get in shape for the Trek, I told I would do it, too.
Now, sometimes, I can talk a pretty good talk, but not always follow through with the walk - especially when it comes to exercise.
It always sounds more dreamy in the head, then I end up talking myself out of it.

Last Friday, I signed up.
The furthest I have ever run is 4.15 miles.
Don't laugh.
I think I have a picture of it somewhere, too.
I have just less than 12 weeks to prepare.

I still have this taped to my treadmill:

I got this.

Simple Joy

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. I’m a fairly simple person and we live and fairly simple life – you know, as much as you can with 6 kids and a dog (wink).

The kids enjoyed the snow over the weekend –  before the blizzard hit.

I’m not sure how much they enjoyed the 11” they trudged through this morning to get to the bus stop, but I’m sure they’ll be back on that hill. Church was canceled yesterday because of the weather conditions, the second time since we’ve lived in Colorado. I can say I got quite the workout shoveling the walks and driveway today. Thankfully, it’s warming right back up so it was melting pretty quickly – just in time for another round of snow tomorrow!

Henry didn’t seem to mind, although he wasn’t much help with the shoveling . . .

I got a kick out of watching that boy try and put a pony tail in Kaycee’s hair yesterday – without pants still, of course.

Couldn’t quite get it, but it was sweet that he wanted to try.

I was thrilled last week when I found these toss pillows and little birds. Honestly, I was lead to that store! I had been on the hunt for pillows for a couple months, so I was over the moon that I found some that I loved. At that same store, I found these little birds for $4 each. The green one was perfect , but I needed to find the right spray paint for the second. I finally found it after 4 stores. (Looking at the coral one now, I didn’t spray it very well!) We’ve had the green color in our house for a while now , but I’m tickled to start adding the coral accents.

This weekend I’ve also been listening to this:

I’ve seen the move twice and I like it a lot better the second time. I think I may be the only person that thought Russell Crowe did a great job. Considering he’s not a singer, I really enjoyed his voice and appreciated how well he stayed on key. I was expecting more from Hugh Jackman, but he did fine. I loved the female leads. Anne Hathaway blew me away. I was so not looking forward to her in the movie, but I think she nailed it. The children singers/actors were phenomenal. I loved it.

I’m not even sure I should write about these. Last month, we happened to find them at Sam’s for less than $4 a bag. Yeah, I bought 8 bags. Ah, the simple joys, right?

Don’t ask me how many bags are left.

Back from the Dead

We haven’t died, but jumping back into blogging is a little daunting. I figured while I’m in the mood to post, I probably should. I’m going to give you the short version of everything and perhaps a few pictures. (Yeah, more than a few.)

December was busy. From craft shows, vinyl orders, dance, wrestling, gymnastics, school programs, turning 32(!),Christmas decorating, Christmas shopping to Christmas. This was our first year celebrating the holidays on our own. I was so worried my kids would feel so lonely, but my anxiety was in vain and it ended up being so nice and cozy. Rylee, Olivia and Henry fought strep throat the last week of school right into Christmas. The day after Christmas (ahem, Boxing Day), I came down with the flu. Nasty, nasty flu. It laid me out for a good three days – in bed. We were healthy (enough) by New Years Eve and partied it up with some friends at a hotel, swimming, eating and playing games. The return of good health was short lived as this past Sunday, Henry woke up puking at 6:45. Olivia followed shortly after, with Kaycee and Clay that evening. Thankfully, by Monday the throwing up had stopped yet Henry started a fever. He’s still fevered. Poor kid. That flu is nasty.

Now for pictures. Thank goodness for cell phones – I’m not sure I would have remembered all this!

Turning 32. The little boys’ faces are my favorite

Miss Olivia right after her dance recital. She nailed it. .

Kaycee in her 3rd grade Mighty Minds production. She was one of the 7 Mighty Minds. I was blown away by the huge banner/sign when I walked into the gym. She was fabulous. She reminded me of myself in my elementary school performances.

This is an picture of the 3 stockings (unfinished) I finished just in the nick of time. I just had to blanket stitch the fabric on and the two pieces together. I love them. I thought I had a picture of all the stockings, but I don’t. Now, ALL the kids have a stocking. Fancy that.

I found this beauty at Savers for $5. Perfect for Rylee for Christmas.

Sorry, the pictures are lame, but this was re-finished Christmas Eve. I thought about distressing the black, but it was more Rylee left crisp and clean. The lamp was from Santa.

My cute crew Christmas morning.

I didn’t take any pictures of our tree this year. It was a joke. The pre-lit thing no longer was pre-lit and covered in lights that you wrap around bushes. It was quite the sight. Hence, it was taken down the earliest ever, New Years Eve day.

Speaking of New Years Eve day, Ryan’s parents were set apart as full time missionaries. So neat. They reported to the MTC in Provo just two days ago and will head down to serve in the Lima, Peru Temple for 18 months.

Don’t they look great?  We miss them already.

I love this picture. Excuse the back light, but I love that Aaron and Ryan are in their Dad’s clothes – at least from the waist up. (Neither of them knew until upon their arrival that they’d be participating in the setting apart.  Cute fellas.)

PHEW, I’m done.

Happy New Year!